The Strategic Management of Charter Schools: Frameworks and Tools for Educational Entrepreneurs

The Strategic Management of Charter Schools addresses the challenges facing such schools by mapping out, in straightforward and highly pragmatic terms, a management framework for them.

The first charter school law in the United States was enacted in Minnesota in 1991. In the twenty years since that modest beginning, the movement has burgeoned and spread across the country: there are now more than five thousand charter schools attended by nearly two million students. Yet due to this rapid growth in the number of charter schools and to their generally independent character, the nature and quality of these institutions vary greatly. The promise of charter schools is great, but so are the organizational and educational challenges they face.

Organized around three crucial challenges to charter school leaders—managing mission, managing internal operations, and managing the larger stakeholder environment—the book provides charter school leaders with indispensable tools and insights for achieving educational and organizational success. In its elucidation of these managerial challenges, and in its equally helpful and detailed examinations of particular schools, the book offers a clear, credible approach to the efficient and sustainable management of what are still young and experimental educational institutions.

The Strategic Management of Charter Schools is a volume in the Educational Innovations series.

Peter Frumkin is professor of public affairs and director of the RGK Center for Philanthropy and Community Service at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin. His research and teaching focus on social entrepreneurship and philanthropy. Frumkin is the author of On Being Nonprofit and Strategic Giving: The Art and Science of Philanthropy. In 2010, two new books by Frumkin appeared. Serving Country and Community, coauthored with JoAnn Jastrzab, examines the effectiveness of the national service programs AmeriCorps and VISTA. The Essence of Strategic Giving: A Practical Guide for Donors and Fundraisers is a revised and condensed version of his earlier book aimed at the world of practice. Frumkin was the founding director of the charter school management program at Harvard University. He consults regularly with foundations and individual donors on strategy and evaluation. His current research focuses on the history of private philanthropic foundations and the development of strategy and management tools for social entrepreneurs.

Bruno V. Manno is senior advisor for K–12 Education Reform with the Walton Family Foundation. Prior to that, he was senior program associate for education with the Annie E. Casey Foundation. Before coming to the Casey Foundation, Manno was Senior Fellow in the Education Policy Studies Program at the Hudson Institute, where he held several positions including executive director of the National Commission on Philanthropy and Civic Renewal and executive director of the National Commission on the Cost of Higher Education. From 1986 to 1993, he worked in the United States Department of Education, holding several senior positions—including Assistant Secretary for Policy and Planning. He is the coauthor of Charter Schools in Action: Renewing Public Education and coeditor of Customized Schooling: Beyond Whole School Reform, as well as many articles on K–12 education policy and reform. He is an Emeritus Trustee of the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation and other nonprofit boards, including the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools.

Nell Edgington is president of Social Velocity (www.socialvelocity.net), a management consulting firm that accelerates social innovation by leading nonprofits to greater social impact and financial sustainability. Social Velocity helps nonprofits be more strategic, bring more money in the door, use resources more effectively, and grow their results-driven programs. In addition to leading the firm, Edgington writes the Social Velocity blog which illustrates strategic solutions to nonprofit challenges. Prior to founding Social Velocity, Edgington had a thirteen-year management career in positions across the national nonprofit sector. She led teams and strategic planning efforts, raised more than $5 million annually, recruited and trained top talent, and won national awards in nonprofit organizations such as PBS, the Oregon Children’s Foundation, and the Capital Area Food Bank. She holds an MBA from the Kellogg School at Northwestern University.